Crossing the Line
by spankingfemfatale
Summary: Rumpelstiltskin is willing to do most anything to get back to his son, Bae. When those means involve potentially harming a fellow citizen of Storybrooke, James aims to take his new role as sheriff quite seriously. WARNING! Contains non-sexual spanking! My plot written out by my lovely husband, Jason! Yes, I'm lucky gal! D


The small car pulled to a stop at the city borders. A sign declared that beyond that point they would be exiting Storybrooke. A man lay in the backseat, twisting around as he saw the sign through the back window of the car.

He made a muffled noise of objection, the gag covering his mouth preventing Rumpelstiltskin from hearing his pleas. For his part, the crippled wizard exited the car, limping to the back door and flinging it open to look down at the bound man inside, "Don't look so glum; it's not like I plan on killing you."

Rumpelstiltskin pulled the struggling form from the car and pushed him towards the town line, which was quite visibly painted on the road in white paint. In any other place this might have seemed strange, but not here; not in the land of magic.

Rumpelstiltskin forced the other man to his knees, hushing him, "You don't need to complain so; after all, if my little experiment fails, you'll never have to worry about that horrible memory of me turning your father into a pig from here on in."

The young man looked at Rumpelstiltskin with a pleading manner in his eyes, and Rumpelstiltskin just smiled back, "That, or you become instrumental in freeing us all from this new curse we find us in; you'll be a hero!"

Rumpelstiltskin retrieved a small box from his coat and opened it, setting objects within in on the ground by the thick white line; candles which he lit and a piece of red cloth. Then he drew forth from his coat a long shining dagger that had his name written along its side.

Rumpelstiltskin laid the dagger almost ceremoniously upon the cloth and took some chalk from the box, drawing an intricate web of lines around the candles and dagger on the ground. Once he had finished he stood and patted his hands off.

He turned to his prisoner, who had watched him pull out the dagger with great dread. "Don't worry, lad; I told you I'm not going to kill you. Sure, your refusal to help us when Belle went missing irritated me, but that's all in the past now…"

Rumpelstiltskin walked over to the man and pulled him to his feet by the arm, "…now you get to be a part of something greater than you; better than being a simple butcher's son, eh?"

Rumpelstiltskin pushed the resisting youth toward the line, grunting as the other man fought him. "Relax; like I said before, the worst that can come of this is freedom from your rather boring past. You won't have to worry about being two people ever again…"

Rumpelstiltskin gave him one last humorless smile and shoved him hard. Just as the screaming man would have flown over the town line someone behind both of them snatched a hold of his collar and yanked him backwards.

Surprised, Rumpelstiltskin turned to see who had snuck up on him to see that it was none other than James, who now glowered at him as he worked quickly to unbind the young man. "Who exactly do you think you are to play god like this, Gold?"

Rumpelstiltskin's lip curled back as he snarled at the prince, "You are breaking our pact, lad! You promised me you would not interfere in my business. I assure you, this is seriously mucking around with my affairs!"

James only glared back, holding his ground as the butcher's son fled from the scene behind him. "Perhaps, but you broke that deal first when you abducted this man; as a stand-in sheriff for this town, the safety of its citizens are my concern."

Mr. Gold spat, "I wasn't going to injure or kill the man!"

James shook his head, "Is that so? Show me your hands."

"What?" Rumpelstiltskin raised his hands palm up, not sure what James was getting at. With one swift motion James clamped handcuffs onto his wrists from underneath.

James grabbed Mr. Gold's shoulder and spun him around to face the line, pushing him right up to it. "If what you were going to do to that boy wasn't harmful, then you won't mind so much when I do it to you."

Rumpelstiltskin dug his feet into the ground and leaned back with all of his weight, but James still pushed him inexorably closer to the thick white line painted on the road. "No! Wait!"

James was furious, his anger obvious in his voice as he pushed Rumple closer yet, "Give me one good reason why I shouldn't! You toy with people's lives like it was a game, and don't try to use Belle as an excuse, because her affection for you is the only reason I've tolerated you this long."

Rumpelstiltskin cried out as James relentlessly pushed him. He realized that with his hands cuffed he would be unable to use magic to defend himself, and the prince proved far too strong to resist physically, "Stop! I… I can't afford to lose my memories, this town needs me for what comes ahead, and that's why I was using another!"

James grunted a negative, "Not going to cut it. We never have and never will need magic; we aren't like you, Rumpelstiltskin. What might benefit us all though would be freedom from your schemes."

James pushed again and Rumpelstiltskin's foot started to cross the line. He felt panic rising in him; he had come too far to fail now. "I have a son! He is on the other side! Please, if you push me over… if you push me over I will forget him!"

James paused, looking Mr. Gold in the eyes, "How do I know this isn't a lie?"

Rumpelstiltskin shook his head, his voice wavering with his fear, "It's not I swear. I swear by everything good it's not."

James spoke at length, "Not good enough; tell me about him."

Rumpelstiltskin breathed relief at the discontinued struggle, "Who?"

James gave him an annoyed look, "Your son. Tell me about him. Tell me everything and I might not push you over this line."

Rumpelstiltskin stared at James' intense gaze for a few moments before finally he began, telling James everything about Baelfire. He told him how he had been forced to raise the boy since his wife had abandoned them, and though he didn't go into detail on why that was, he found it easy to speak of his son.

With an ache in his heart, Mr. Gold related how Baelfire had fallen through a portal to arrive in the land they now stood in.

The prince reacted violently to this, grabbing Rumpelstiltskin by the collar and shaking him, "You mean the only reason me, Snow, and all of these innocent people are here is because you needed a ride here?!"

Rumpelstiltskin shook his head, his voice miserable, "The Blue Fairy told me only a curse could do it… and I love my boy."

James held him there on the cusp a moment longer, then pulled him back and forced him to sit on the hood of his car. "Was this petty revenge then? Why would you push that boy across?"

Rumpelstiltskin shifted uncomfortably under the interrogation, acutely aware of his continued powerlessness. He nodded to the candles and diagram upon the ground surrounding his knife. "I was trying to free us all from whatever is making us lose our memories." He added quickly, "There was a chance he would not have even lost his memories."

James glanced over to the items then gave Rumpelstiltskin a meaningful look, "Well, this isn't how we're going to do it; there has to be another way…"

Mr. Gold interrupted him angrily, "Things aren't as simple as you imagine, but seeing as you know nothing of magic I should assume you would think so. I've already gone over the possibilities, but no matter how we break this new curse, there's only one way to find out that it's really been broken."

James folded his arms across his chest and shook his head, "Not going to happen. If we truly can't find another way then either we aren't trying hard enough or we need to stay put until something changes."

Rumpelstiltskin was livid, "Not trying hard enough?! You have no idea what I have had to do to get this far, and now I'm to be stopped by a man who brazenly breaks his deals, Deal-Breaker?!"

James stood stolidly, his voice resolute, "I'm suggesting we work together, Mr. Gold. I'll help you reach your goals, but we aren't going to hurt people to do it."

Rumpelstiltskin launched himself at James, throwing a double-handed swing at the impromptu sheriff's head, "You're going to have us stay here and do nothing, because you don't have what it takes to see it through. You know nothing of sacrifice!"

James ducked his blow easily and stepped underneath Rumpelstiltskin's attacking limbs, pushing the wizard back onto the car as he spoke, "You're right; I would never sacrifice the things I care about. That would be missing the point."

Rumpelstiltskin rolled along the hood, grabbing ahold of James and pulling him along with him. The two men struggled, grappling as he replied, "Then what is the point?! Enlighten me as to what is more important than my son!"

As they wrestled James hauled Rumpelstiltskin around irritably, finally positioning himself to be sitting with the wizard across his lap. He locked both of Rumpelstiltskin's legs to the hood with his left leg as his right arm circled his waist, thoroughly pinning Mr. Gold in place.

Rumpelstiltskin cried out in surprise as he felt the cool morning air on his exposed ass cheeks, and he looked over his shoulder to see that James had ripped his britches down. James finally responded as he brought his palm down hard across Mr. Gold's bare bottom, "Sure; I'll enlighten you about a lot of things."

Rumpelstiltskin yelled out again at the stinging sensation that accompanied James' swift blow to his backside. "What the hell are you doing?!"

James gave him a tight-lipped smile as he continued, the sound of the slaps filling the air, "This is the first part of putting you in line, because I imagine you have forgotten what it was like when you couldn't just bully everyone around you."

James continued laying into Rumpelstiltskin, the wizard gasping at the sudden blossoming pain as he twisted in the prince's grasp. His voice shook with rage as he spoke, "You had best stop this and release me at once! You cannot hold me this way forever and you have no idea how much I can make you suffer for this!"

James frowned at him and stopped, Rumpelstiltskin breathing hard with relief that the punishment had stopped. James reached back but instead of pulling Mr. Gold's pants back up he instead removed the other man's belt, folding it in his hand as he did so.

Rumpelstiltskin's eyes widened as he read what James was about to do, "No… wait, don't do that… I promise I will not rest until you regret it if you continue this course!"

James shook his head, "On the note of regret…" he brought the belt down hard across Rumpelstiltskin's reddened cheeks, just above the legs where he was already feeling quite tender. As Mr. Gold shouted in pain he went on, "…I intend to enlighten you about that as well. You'll feel it soon enough, and if you think I'm afraid of you, you'll learn better than that real fast as well."

Rumpelstiltskin bucked and rocked in James' grasp, yelling and screaming against the furious swats delivered to his already aching backside, "Stop, stop, no more!"

James kept swinging in way of reply, "You don't even think about the people you hurt anymore, do you? You just keep on the way you always have as if the ends justify the means, and just because you love your son, the ties of love you destroy on your way to him don't matter."

James brought the strap across and struck him in the same place rapidly, causing Rumpelstiltskin to arch his back and cry out miserably against the overwhelming sting. "I've had enough of it, and those people; they have had enough of it. You need to change for me and them, so that we stop hurting each other…"

Rumpelstiltskin felt tears of pain sting his eyes, his breath ragged and his muscles strained against the punishment being delivered to him. "Deal, I promise to leave you all be, just please release me!"

James frowned and didn't stop, bringing the last down again and again until Rumpelstiltskin shook in his grasp between swats in anticipation of the next, "Not until I'm finished talking. You're going to hear all of this whether you like it or not. And until I'm convinced you understand I'm going to keep treating you like the reckless punk you are."

Rumpelstiltskin screamed out an affirmative, his whole body going rigid from a particularly painful swat, panicked and strained past his limits, "Alright! Please go on!"

James nodded, "You also need to change for Belle, because if anyone needs to show her kindness it's you" James paused, "Also your son, Rumpelstiltskin."

Rumpelstiltskin slumped as James stopped hitting him, taking deep breaths of gratitude that the torture had stopped. "What… What about Bae?"

James leaned in to look Rumpelstiltskin squarely in the face, "You need to change for him. What, do you think he is going to be happy to see his father again when over your shoulder lays a trail of suffering and destruction in your wake?"

Rumpelstiltskin cringed, not because of the excruciating pain in his buttocks, but because what James suggested hit home. "I... I don't…"

James shook his head, "Shut up, I'm talking. Just listen for once, and stop trying to twist words for your gain. If you find your son but do so as a monster, what have you really done for him?"

Rumpelstiltskin moved for a moment but no sound came out. At last he turned, setting his forehead down on the hood of the car in defeat. They both sat there in silence for a time before he spoke again, "In the end, I'm still a bad father…"

James slipped out from under him and off of the hood, moving to unlock the cuffs on Mr. Gold's hands and smiling at the look of confusion on the other's face as he extended his hand, "You are alive, so it isn't over yet. By the law of this land I should certainly take you to jail for what you've done here, but we aren't from this land… so how about we start over instead? "


End file.
